Entrepreneurial Finance

The Entrepreneurial Finance elective aims to help future executives, facing financing and investment decisions in a broad range of entrepreneurial environments, to make better decisions and achieve better outcomes. The course covers all stages of the financing process from initial financial planning to harvesting value.

While the course will inevitably involve looking at a number of technology driven businesses the emphasis is on gaining insights into the entrepreneurial financing process rather than looking at the financing of technology businesses per se.

Entrepreneurial environments considered will include not just young, growing, independent businesses but also those around the buy-outs and spin-outs of units from more established businesses as well as entrepreneurial joint ventures that are established with a view to their becoming independently viable entrepreneurial businesses in their own right. One of the eight sessions will also be devoted to looking at the venture capital industry with a view to providing candidates with a broad understanding of current developments in this area and the likely future impact on the range of financing options and alternatives available from these sources going forward.

The course is designed to focus on the numbers and analytic techniques for gaining insight, although continual attention will also be paid to the incentives facing each of the parties in the financing process. The course will be highly relevant for future executives who may be involved in an entrepreneurial venture at some point in their careers, whether in a turnaround, a management buy-out, a young company or a start-up. The course will also be highly applicable for future private equity and venture capital decision makers.

This is an elective course for MLF students taking the finance stream.